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Thursday, December 13, 2007

Gallegos to handle police prosecution

If former Eureka Police Chief David Douglas and Lt. Tony Zanotti stand trial, District Attorney Paul Gallegos will be the one prosecuting them.

”It's going to be a very, very tough case,” Gallegos said Wednesday in his first public comments on the case since convening the criminal grand jury last month. “It's very divisive, and it would be unfair in my eyes to put it off on someone else. I figure those sort-of-miserable cases should flow to me. That's the way it should be.”

Gallegos' office officially announced Monday that the grand jury had returned indictments of involuntary manslaughter against Douglas and Zanotti stemming from their decision-making roles in the 2006 shooting death of Cheri Lyn Moore.

Moore, who had a history of mental illness, was shot April 14, 2006, by Eureka police officers in her apartment at Fifth and G streets after a two-hour standoff in which she brandished a flare gun, threw items from her second-story apartment and threatened to burn the building down.

Police have said they believed Moore had put down the flare gun when the decision was made to storm her apartment. When officers came face to face with Moore, who had the flare gun pointed at them, they shot her multiple times. Neither of the shooters were indicted.

On the heels of comments from the defense team and from Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen inquiring about how Gallegos led the grand jury proceedings, Gallegos said he is confident all parties involved were treated fairly.

”The intention was to be fair to all parties, to present evidence in a fair and impartial way for review by a grand jury,” Gallegos said. “That certainly was my endeavor. Certainly it will be open to intense scrutiny. Whether I did or not, certainly the defense will say I did not, and it will be up for the court to decide.”

After working through his first criminal grand jury experience as a prosecutor, Gallegos said if one thing's clear, it's that there will be nothing easy about this case.

”I am confident that it is going to be a tough case for the jurors, for us and for the community,” he said.

The law enforcement community is taking notice as well.

Ron Cottingham, president of the Police Officers Research Association of California, said this is the first time in his three decades in law enforcement that he has heard of commanders being indicted for giving orders or direction. The indictments, he said, set a scary precedent for officers, who are often Monday-morning-quarterbacked for their decisions.

”If anything adverse happens from this, everyone will probably have to reevaluate their tactical processes,” Cottingham said. “It's another situation where the decisions officers have to make on the street at the time of conflict -- when there's just a myriad of things going on -- are fuel for everyone who is going to sit back and second guess everything that was done.”

For his part, Gallegos said he doesn't foresee a problem with his office's ability to work with EPD in the future.

”We work with everyone, and that's the way it is,” Gallegos said. “Absolutely our job is to be independent. It's also to monitor law enforcement activities. ... It's a mystery to me that people think there's this relationship that we don't ever look at what (officers) do, and say, 'You've done something wrong.' That's not our legal system -- that's antithetical to our legal system. That would put individuals and an organization above the law.”

Gallegos emphasized he is not anti-law enforcement and said he believes the commanders will receive a fair trial in Humboldt County.

”(The community) isn't anti-law enforcement,” Gallegos said. “There are certainly some people that are, but that's not the community. People understand the need for it, they respect law enforcement, they defer to law enforcement, but they have certain expectations. ... I think the defendants will get a fair shake in this community.”

The district attorney also took a moment to caution that, in this case and all others, defendants are innocent until proven guilty.

”The burden of proof is on us,” he said, adding he understands that the grand jury indictments have added fuel to some of his critics' fire.

”If my doing my job and fulfilling my legal responsibility to this community makes you unhappy, then you are going to be unhappy with me.”***

24 comments:

As if this isn't bringing enough critical attention to the buffoon capital of the world. I can hear the talking heads on CourtTV now, dissecting every rumble, bumble, stumble, and fumble of Gags. He is working toward a new nickname: "Custer".

He then asks them to return an indictment based upon his interpretation of the evidence and the instructions.

Now he says it’s a tough case? Now he says he is only here but for the grand jury?

He either misinstructed the GJ or the GJ was out of his control. I am betting the former occurred and not the latter.

If the village idiot wanted this to be done fairly and impartially, then he should have simply charged them and let a public probable cause hearing take place before a judge with the defense putting forward their evidence and the law.

Wasn't he at the scene, talking to Dave Douglas? Unless they weren't talking about the situation, whether it was before, during or after the shooting, how can he not be a witness to what Douglas's take on it was? I mean, did he tell Douglas at the scene "Hey pal, looks like vol man to me"or did he say " I can see why you did it that way". Whatever, howis he now able to be the actualin-court prosecutor?

Or did I not see that picture in the paper of the two of them looking pretty chummy at the scene?

Thanks, 4:11, I was gearing up with almost exactly the same points. Gallegos is good at those vacuous sound so good statements. If you take them at face value, and don't look beneath the surface, it's easy to fall for them.

If he was doing his job we wouldn't have lost all of our experienced prosecutors, we'd still have all the people employed at the Victim Witness program, he wouldn't have all but disbanded the Child Abuse Services Team... the list goes on...

It's hard to see how Gallegos benefits from this any way it goes, period. Maybe he will get some exposure on Nancy Grace. But seriously, the easiest thing for him to have done was decline to press charges like in the other shooting cases. I understand some think he's appeasing his base which is supposedly 'cop haters.' As vocal as they may be they are a very small minority. He would not have survived 2 elections + a recall if he didn't have the 'mainstream' voters. Sorry, but it's true.

I have a question ? If PVG polices the police (like he says and thinks he does) who is going to police him ? And his wife ? Specifically his wife's driving. More than once I've seen Joanie hauling ass down H street cutting back and forth between lanes without signalling. I guess she gets a pass because she's married to the idiot ? Maybe she has immunity ? Or maybe she just drives like an asshole because she's in a hurry and really doesn't give a tinkers damn about anyone else.

And PVG's "legal responsibility" ? How does his systematic plea bargaining of serious felonies to misdemeanors fall into his "responsibility"? Check the papers with regards to convictions !

Also heard PVG lost another deputy DA this week! Lost as in quit to take another job. One more to the list.

Intresting ?? posed on Eric's Parlance.I am pretty sure the paper ran a photo of Mr. Gallegos discussing the Moore situation with Chief Douglas, possibly after the shooting. Unless they were discussing recipes, doesn't that make the prosecutor a witness to whatever Douglas said about the situation, which goes to Douglas's state of mind, which is the central element of the crime charged? How does that work? Either the prosecution should be calling him to testify that Douglas's remarks indicated that he had not duly considered his options, or that his attitude was cavalier or whatever, or the defense should be calling him to testify that Douglas seemed gravely concerned about the situation and that his remarks reflected serious consideration of all the options, obstacles, pros and cons.

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Paul Gallegos

The Humboldt County Grand Jury found that "Weak leadership and poor managerial practices" have undermined the office... Implicit in all evidence gathered by the Grand Jury - including interviews with the D.A. (Paul Gallegos) - is the unfortunate truth that the D.A. (Paul Gallegos) exhibits a limited understanding of how things are done in the department" Gallegos "lacks the global perspective needed to keep the department operating efficiently," and quotes an unnamed staff member as saying, "The D.A. (Paul Gallegos) does not fully understand the functionality of many of the things we do here" - Years later, in his own words: "I’m not an administrator, they didn’t elect me to be an administrator, they elected me to make sure this office runs..."

It’s still heresy to say it out loud, but the great secret of the Gallegos constituency is how many people in the camp are, truth be told, sick to death of the man. I have seen radical lefty Humboldt State professors roll their eyes and gag when his name comes up. I have talked to more than one person on his endorsement list who half-hates himself for allowing his name to be used. The question is: What will these people do in the privacy of the voting booth?Hank Sims

Gallegos on Measure T

6 minute VIDEO Click on the pic Anonymous: Gallegos looks and sounds like he either had been drinking or hitting off his bong. What a nut.... Anonymous: My favorite Gallegos moment in this snippet is when he says he supports Measure T for two reasons and holds up one finger to emphasize the point.

PleaDealsRUS

Letting Bad Guys Off Easy Since 2003

Douglas & Zanotti

CASE TOSSED The district attorney misrepresented the law and failed to provide evidence of former Eureka Police Chief David Douglas' and Lt. Tony Zanotti's innocence during a criminal grand jury inquiry into the 2006 shooting death of Cheri Lyn Moore, defense attorneys argued in court documents filed Thursday... ”Our judicial system stands as a real and necessary check on the grand jury indictment process,” one of the documents states. “This court has the authority and the means by which to halt this prosecution, which is justified neither by the undisputed facts, nor by the law.”

Gallegos has taken what was "arguably the state's best small DA's office, with a cutting edge CAST program that "trained the trainers"... into a bunch of time serving bureaucratic wannabee brown nosers, lightly sprinkled with a couple of earnest learners who are sure to split as soon as possible.

One weeps for Max Cardoza who won Angellel, and for Maggie Fleming who won so many impossible victories. Mired in Humboldt for personal reasons, they have to suffer the ignominy of working for Paul, with Yougo, yes, yougo who has freed more people as a prosecutor than he did as a defense attorney. As has Paul. Anonymous comment

Gallegos has answers for everything. I’ve never met anyone whose answers came so quickly, with such polish - except about his law school(s). He likely sounded the same way when promising to get prosecutors off their anachronistic “at will” status and onto civil service status. It never happened. Indeed, he told them, “Disloyalty will not be tolerated” – a real morale builder.

He sounds great. What progressive doesn’t want to believe in him? But it’s a myth. He’s an intellectual lightweight and self-aggrandizer who tries to please everybody with glib answers. Jim Fahey for The Arcata Eye

The Humboldt County DA's office is one of the most exciting prosecutorialoffices in California.

Its District Attorney, Paul Gallegos, is willing to charge anyone who commitswrongdoing--no matter how wealthy, sacrosanct, or ruthless. He believes in total equality before the law. He also plans to be innovative in promoting programs of prevention and treatment. He wants to make it the best prosecutorial office of its size in the nation.... Gallegos' Help Wanted ad

Plagiarism

1980 Murder

Gallegos' OWN Quotes

★ ...District Attorney Paul Gallegos said he believes the statute of limitations clock, even on misdemeanors, doesn't start running until law enforcement knows or reasonably should have known of the offense. In this case, Gallegos said, that means the statute of limitations would not run out at least until Feb. 8, 2009, or one year after Gundersen's arrest and the discovery of the photographs in question...

★ “I never said that the information was not available under the Freedom of Information Act. Quite the contrary, I informed you that our use of force policy is not a public record.” Paul Gallegos to the Times Standard 5/25/07

★ ...“One is that I do everything to make people happy which means I don’t stand for anything except for just something,” he said. “The other is I stand for something and I try to be a leader and take some people, a group of people, a community someplace and I say guess what folks, this is who I am. I stand for your beliefs. We share these beliefs or we don’t. You get the option to judge that. This is who I am and I am committed to leading us this place, wherever it is...." Eureka Reporter Gallegos defends record, looks ahead 7/3/2005

★ Note the difference between what he SAID, and what he DOES..."...So what are these issues? Top on Gallegos' list is the proliferation of "garbage cases," small-time crimes and overcharged cases that he said are clogging up the court system.

Garbage cases, said Gallegos, come in two forms: Cases that would lose if actually brought to trial and cases that are overcharged for the crimes committed. The idea behind filing both kinds of garbage, he said, is to get the defendant to plead guilty, netting a conviction without having to go into court.

Again, the IRONY is astounding! Look at what he SAYS, and then think about what he DOES! "Probably 95 percent of the cases that are filed plead guilty. In fact, there are a lot of cases that are filed on the assumption they will plead guilty, because of the time and expense involved in defending them. But these cases shouldn't even be filed in the first place, because if they were challenged, they would lose," Gallegos said. Better yet: If they weren't filed at all, it would save the county time and money...." North Coast Journal 2/21/02 Too bad he didn't take his own advice.

★ “Tim’s a stud,” he said. “He really is; anyone would be stoked to have him.” Gallegos on his second in command right hand man Assistant District Attorney Tim Stoen. (Former second in command right hand man to Jim Jones/People's Temple.)

NOT GUILTY!

"This is not the crime of the century. I'll concede that entirely." Humboldt County DA Paul Gallegos on the Toddler Wandering case, where he threw the full weight of the law against an innocent father. The jury took a couple of minutes to sign the papers needed to find him not guilty. Only one example of Gallegos' schizophrenic pattern of pursuing cases.

Local serial killer

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NOTE:

"Helping Crush Progressivism" - ie: exposing the predatory litigious orgs and those who seek power for power's sake.... The original purpose of watchpaul is to post important documents relating to Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos and his handlers who seek to gain power through the acquisition of political offices. This includes, but is not limited to, the manipulations of "Humboldt Watershed Council," "EPIC," "Baykeeper," and other activist groups - the unregulated orgs. It also includes the master manipulators, such as Richard Salzman and Ken Miller.

Links to key stories and documents are also included in the sidebar, so that you do not have to try to scroll back through what has become a lengthy series of posts. I encourage you to use the Search and Labels features as well.

NOTE:

The Eureka Reporter ceased publication and pulled all online archives. Links to ER stories will no longer work. Some stories have been saved on watchpaul.articles, the rest can, hopefully, be accessed at the Humboldt State University Library.